Consultants, Others Complain About Layoffs on VaultReports.com Message Board for AT Kearney.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 1999--

Management consulting firms are known for solving problems, not suffering them. But current and ex-consultants at A.T. Kearney, a subsidiary of EDS, the professional services company, are expressing their discontentment about the firm's recent layoffs on the VaultReports.com (http://www.VaultReports.com) message board for A.T. Kearney employees. A.T. Kearney laid off 200 of its consultants in March, about 5 percent of its total workforce.

What was the purpose of the layoffs? In comments to Business Week magazine, CEO Fred Steingraber claimed the layoffs were the normal result of weeding out underperforming consultants - an assertion that A.T. Kearney insiders contest bitterly.

Several criticize A.T. Kearney CEO Fred Steingraber's comments to BusinessWeek magazine about the A.T. Kearney layoffs, while others bemoan the relationship the consulting company has with EDS, a computer professional services company.

The Business Week article also speculated that A.T. Kearney has had an uneasy time adjusting to life as a subsidiary of EDS, the Texas-based professional services firm. EDS acquired the consulting firm in 1995.

According to new messages in the A.T. Kearney area of VaultReports.com's Electronic WaterCooler(tm) message boards (http://www.VaultReports.com/links/ATKearney), many insiders are displeased at A.T. Kearney's handling of the situation, criticizing everything from the stealthy nature of the layoffs to the criteria used for selecting those employees:

-- "In the most recent layoffs (YES, LAYOFFS) even most mentors

weren't involved. I spoke with several different managers who

didn't even know their mentees were being laid off until the

mentee contacted them!!

Some process...."

-- "At the senior levels, VPs and Principals, the layoffs were

probably performance based (no one knows for sure, since the

process is shrouded in secrecy). However, the new Associates and

BAs [business analysts] did not get a chance to prove their

worth, since there simply wasn't sufficient work!"

-- "ATK called people out of training sessions to lay them off. Is

that classy? In the West, management was telling people before

the official announcement that the layoffs would mostly affect

upper management. Then they wiped out the associates."

Other self-identified A.T. Kearney insiders, however, leapt to the firm's defense.

-- "ATK has remained intact and a desirable working environment over

the last few years in large part because of its junior-ranking

consultants. The firm, fortunately, attracts high caliber

individuals with unquestionable integrity. These are the firm's

true assets."

-- "The firm cut 5% of its global staff - by no means a large number

- and on average with a few exceptions, they were the bottom 5%."

See www.VaultReports.com/links/ATKearney for the full thread of messages. Needless to say, the messages in VaultReports.com's message boards are solely the opinions of the respective posters and do not reflect the opinions of VaultReports.com or the companies to which they pertain.

VaultReports.com also houses free profiles and message boards for such top firms as: Gartner (NYSE: IT), American Management Systems (NASDAQ: AMSY), Mercer (NYSE: MMC), Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC), Buck Consultants [subsidiary of Mellon Bank Corporation (NYSE: MEL)], Renaissance Worldwide (NASDAQ: REGI), and Cambridge Technology Parners (NASDAQ: CATP) .

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In January,VaultReports.com (http://www.VaultReports.com) was one of only two career web sites honored by Yahoo Internet Life as "Best of the Best Sites for 1998." A leading workplace portal, VaultReports.com publishes "insider" guides on over 1,500 companies and 50 industries. Seven weeks ago, VaultReports.com launched its Electronic WaterCooler(tm), the first-ever network of company-specific bulletin boards. Located at http://vaultreports.com/links/MessageBoards , Vault's Electronic Watercooler(tm) allows employees around the world to dish the latest gossip about their company or other companies - all within the uncensored domain of the VaultReports.com web site. VaultReports.com was founded in 1996 by H.S. Hamadeh, Samer Hamadeh, and Mark Oldman, recent graduates of Stanford and Wharton.